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  “Before you get started want to introduce me to the rest of the Team?” Ty asked her, bringing her to a stop with the coffee cut to her mouth.

  An odd expression passed over her face and was gone. She leaned against the wall outside the coffee bar and gave a shout.

  “Guys, front and center!” she yelled, taking another deep sip of her coffee.

  He heard several chairs scraping back and Ty found himself surrounded by the Team. He was surprised by what he saw.

  “You’ve met Lonnie Tommè, who is our IT specialist, resident geek and all round boy genius.” The young man Melissa pointed to couldn’t be more than twenty years old with long black hair, startling blue eyes and wearing a boy band t-shirt with some kind of slogan on it that Ty was sure was outlawed in most states. He wore tight skinny jeans and the brightest neon yellow tennis shoes Ty had ever seen.

  “I swear the boy creates magic in more ways than one. We can’t do anything without him and I’ve stopped trying.” The young man stood there for a minute and looked like he almost blushed before pulling himself together.

  “Welcome and if you need anything, just yell. Oh, and let me see your smartphone in a bit. I’ll sync it with the tablets so you get all of the latest updates as they come in.” Lonnie winked at him, gave him a quick two-finger salute and left like the breeze he seemed to be. Everyone smiled as he left.

  “See what I mean?” she grinned, watching the kid disappear down the hall.

  “Paco Garcia,” a young man stepped forward, offering his hand.

  “Paco has been with us for ten years. He works logistics and government agencies, and anything else we can find for him. He’s one of the best agents we have and I’m lucky he’s on the team.” She laughed when his face turned red, which Ty thought interesting for the Hispanic young man.

  “Danny Ashton.” The man stepped forward and shook his hand. He couldn’t be more than late twenties with a sadness buried deep within that didn’t reach his eyes. Ty knew about sadness and hoped this job didn’t burn Ashton out too soon as it did so many good agents.

  “Danny is our PR man as well as the one who has to deal with all of the manic upper management shit that goes on. I don’t want his job for anything but he works well with Buck so it’s all good.” Melissa’s comment brought an instant smile to Danny’s face, causing a remarkable change. Ty could see how much the man respected her and he could tell it was mutual.

  “You just hate having to watch your mouth around reporters, Lisa.” Danny grinned, shaking his head. He looked over at Ty and ducked his head. “The last time she spoke to the press it took Buck and I almost a month to clear up the flack. She’s a menace when the reporters get in her face and don’t let them even try to get near a crime scene.”

  “That’s your job, Ash. I just want to put a bullet in them.” Everyone laughed at her comment except Melissa and Ty knew there had to be a story behind it.

  “Hopefully, you can keep us out of trouble if this whole case goes to hell.” Ty told Danny because his gut had been screaming at him since he had gotten the call. Danny looked around the room and then at Melissa, and it was apparent he thought someone was missing.

  “Where’s Chip?” he asked, looking at Paco and Melissa.

  “Who’s Chip?” Tense quiet settled around the group before Melissa cleared her throat to answer him.

  “He’s our other Agent and evidently he’s late getting in. Again.”

  “Who is he, exactly?” This time Ty looked directly at Melissa, dismissing the others who quietly slipped out of the area and made it back to their own offices.

  “Anthony Chip Nicholson has been with the DEA for eleven years. He didn’t like it that I was made the Team Lead for this case and made it very clear to Buck. That’s one reason why I was a little upset they made you and I co-Leads. It will make Chip happy to take me down a peg or two.”

  Ty could tell by the way Melissa continued to hold her coffee cup that it bothered her. Her body language screamed how much she was holding back. He didn’t want there to be problems with the Team, and especially between the two of them working the case.

  “I’ll handle Chip Nicholson and make it clear to him that you are still the actual Lead and that I’m only here to help. I tried to tell Buck that and I’ll also handle him.”

  “I don’t want any problems with this, DuValle. I just want to solve the case.” Melissa gave him a pointed look before walking toward the conference room.

  He shook his head, watching Agent Melissa McKinney walk out of the area with her nose in a cup and her eyes on the tablet she opened in her other hand. She moved across the room without so much as looking up but didn’t run into anything on her way. Ty was amazed as he watched. Melissa was now so lost in work she didn’t spill a drop as she entered the conference room and partially closed the door behind her.

  Ten hours and countless pots of coffee later Ty was feeling his stomach begin to roll from too much acid and not enough food. He’d skipped lunch to work though the paperwork, reviewing the information Lonnie had loaded onto the flash drive for him. Now he needed to get out of there and find someplace to eat to clear his head. Too many kids were being taken and the more he looked at the information that had been gathered so far along with what he had managed to pull together from other agencies across the country it was finally becoming obvious, this was an organization who had deep pockets and high-ranking sources. They had to have moles in almost every branch of government because the trails always went cold, and each time a department had tried to get someone undercover it had ended badly.

  True to his reputation, Lonnie had programmed Ty’s laptop, smartphone and tablet so they were linked directly to the Team’s input as it came in. As information updates were made and every Team member’s device would have the latest information. The boy wonder was truly a Keeper.

  He already had Lonnie setting up algorithms to link to different government databases, including missing persons’ reports, all Child Protective Services and any others necessary to identify who these kids were. They also needed to figure out how they were obtaining their “product” and put a stop to the pipeline. Ty was determined to find the head of the snake and cut it off, but they desperately needed answers. Like, how this could have gone undetected for so long. So far, it looked like most of the kids were either runaways or those lost within the foster care system. However, some had been sold by their guardians or had come across the border with Coyotes and never heard from again. With that thought circling around in his brain, it was time to call it a night.

  Looking out his office door he could barely see Melissa’s shadow seated at the conference room table. She was lost in thought reading through victim’s statements and had been at it for hours. It took meticulous documentation and reviewing to create the spreadsheets and databases they would use once all of the interviews were final. He watched as she continued to flip from paper to keyboard as she cataloged each victim’s statement and cross-referenced them. It was time-consuming work but if one item could be matched to something, anything that linked a suspect, it could be the lead that broke the case.

  “Agent McKinney,” he called across his desk, trying to catch her attention. At first Ty thought she was deliberately ignoring him until he heard her swear under her breath. “What is it?” he asked, moving over to stand next to her. He bent down, drawing her attention.

  “It’s the boys,” she whispered, shaking her head, leaning back in her chair.

  “What do you mean? The boys we rescued?” He watched her face, blue eyes bright with intelligence but a face shadowed with pain.

  “They are selling the girls, but keeping the boys. Look at these invoices.”

  She pulled what they had managed to find from the last raid, laying them side by side next to the list of kids who had been there. It looked like numbers had been assigned to the names of boys, with ages 10 to 16; all of the invoices had been in the caves where the raid had taken place. There had been only a very fe
w girls they were able to retrieve and just a couple of the younger boys. At first Melissa hadn’t thought too much about it. Now that she was reviewing the statements and looking over the reports, she realized why there had been just a few girls on the property but there was a list for so many more. There were numbers beside each, with a dollar amount. There had been a recent auction.

  Chapter 4

  “The son of bitches are selling the girls and keeping the boys for some reason.” Melissa stared at the proof and her stomach churned. “This is a prostitution ring for boys and they are using the girls to fund it!” The squad room was quiet this late at night so Melissa’s voice hung in the room.

  She had poured over the reports and white board coming to the only conclusion she could draw from the facts before her and it made her sick at her stomach. It also meant more than one person was helping to organize and handle the volume of trafficking they had uncovered just in the Texas and New Mexico area. The white board mapped out the locations of all routes the victims they had found so far, and it was mind boggling to realize no one had realized these kids were just gone.

  “Don’t you ever sleep?” Ty’s voice reminded her that he was still standing next to her desk. The question startled her, causing her coffee to slosh as she twisted around from staring at the board.

  Ty leaned a hip against her desk, his tall body looking easy and relaxed in tight jeans and polo shirt. Somewhere along the line the FBI-required dress code must have missed Ty’s reference. The casual clothes would fit in better with the rednecks around the Panhandle than a dark suit that screamed FED. She barely stopped herself from licking her lips, taking in the long length of him. God, he was still so handsome and age had been good to him with the laugh lines around his eyes and that full mouth just so damn tempting she had to look away.

  “I didn’t realize you were still here? I thought everyone left hours ago.” She took another sip of her cold coffee, her nose wrinkling at the bitter taste. She turned back to the board, dismissing him. “I’ll leave in a few.”

  “You didn’t even hear me call you a few minutes ago, did you?”

  Ty watched her, aware that Melissa was pushing it and not sure why. Scuttlebutt was that coming back to her home stomping grounds wasn’t something Agent McKinney did very often. It surprised him because he had thought she and her family had always been close. Yet Buck had mentioned she hadn’t taken any time off to visit them in the last few years. Now, very dedicated Agent McKinney sat in the situation room at 11 PM on a Friday night drinking cold coffee and going over spreadsheets and victim profiles.

  “Agent McKinney, put it away and let me buy you some dinner.” He stood, smiling at the shocked looked as she whipped around to look at him.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I know I didn’t stutter. I said, lock it up. Let’s go get something to eat. It’s Friday night and we can start this again tomorrow morning.” He reached out and took the coffee cup from her hands, amazed Melissa just stood there looking at him like Ty had grown two heads.

  “Why are you doing this?” Melissa whispered, still not moving.

  “Because we’re co-workers and it’s late. I hate to eat alone and hopefully, you know where we can get something decent to eat this late at night. I don’t want fast food so let’s go.” Ty stood there smiling, waiting and daring her to turn him down.

  Well hell, he’s not going to take no for an answer.

  Melissa suddenly realized she was starving and staring at Ty over dinner would be a good distraction as long as she kept her wits about her. Picking up fast food, going back to the hotel room alone just wasn’t something she wanted to do right now. Not with the memories of the past crowding her so close. She looked at his handsome face and wondered what Mr. FBI’s angle was and made the decision she could handle him. With a cocky grin, she finally laughed.

  “Why not, I hate eating alone, too.” Reaching for her backpack, checking to ensure she had her badge on her belt and her weapon on her hip, the two of them secured the room and flicked off the lights. Once out the back doors, Melissa headed to her rented SUV before realizing Mr. FBI wasn’t following. Opening the driver’s side door, she turned to see him standing next to a black 1969 Camaro that made her mouth water. Just the site of it caused her clit to swell, her juices to start flowing. A car like that was all sex and muscles, just like its owner.

  “That is not government issued!” Whistling, she walked over to stand in front of it. Midnight black, the muscle car gleamed under the parking lot lights, the paint job glinting like diamonds in the humid air. She could see the red leather interior and imagined they were the softest leather if this man had done the restoration correctly. Somewhere in the back of her mind Melissa remembered Ty had always wanted a muscle car. They had talked long and hard about them for hours on end sitting out back of her dad’s double care garage. She remembered he also liked motorcycles, too. Hopefully, he hadn’t taken that habit as well. She had seen too many car versus motorcycle accidents and the one riding the crotch rocket never came out the winner.

  “I couldn’t leave my baby behind so I drove it up from home. She needed a good stretch on the open road anyway. Gave me a chance to clean the pipes out.” The goofy grin on Ty’s face caught Melissa off guard and reminded her how long it had been since she had allowed anyone to get close.

  “Well, it would be a shame to leave it in the parking lot so why don’t you follow me to the Lone Star Steakhouse, otherwise you’ll never find it.” She grinned, wondering if Ty would insist on driving. The sexual tension Ty had felt since first seeing her again shot up, his cock rubbing the back side of his zipper reminding him of just how long it had been since having a woman under him.

  “Lead the way, Agent McKinney. You know these parts better than I do and hopefully where we are going will be nice to my car.” His grin dared Melissa to challenge him. She just winked as she rounded his car and headed for her huge SUV.

  “I promise you, Mr. FBI. They will love your car.” Getting into her SUV, Melissa made sure Ty could follow her from the precinct south, weaving their way along quiet Amarillo streets to Washington Blvd then turned, headed out of town. She watched her review mirror to ensure Ty was still following but there weren’t too much traffic on the city streets other than kids out for joy rides so making it to the city limits was easy. The route was a familiar one to her as it brought back memories best left long buried. However, when they dipped past Camp Don Harrington and came up the other side of the ravine, Melissa felt a chill race down her spine as she looked back toward her left and the lights lining the Canyon.

  Old ghosts died hard, and the ones of her childhood stalked close tonight as she hit the gas to race up the winding road to FM 1151 toward the Claude Road intersection. Memories of bonfires and hayrides, of her best friend telling her everything would work out once she told him about her special talents. It was the biggest mistake she had ever made.

  Shaking her head, Melissa looked back to make sure she hadn’t lost her tail, then turned left and made her way to the Lone Star Steakhouse, a popular bar and grill that served some of the best steaks in the Panhandle and known to most of the locals. This late at night only the regulars would be around and it should be fairly easy to get a quiet corner table.

  Parking in the well-lit area of the parking lot, she watched Tyrone pull up next to her as he shook his head and climbed out of the sleek car. As she locked her own vehicle, she heard him chuckle.

  “Do you think you could have picked something a little closer to town?” He leaned against the hood of his car, looking at the rustic exterior of the building which looked like an old fashion saloon but was in fact a very well run restaurant.

  “Trust me, you will sing a different tune when you taste their steaks.” She gave him a saucy grin and turned, not waiting. Pushing it open, she felt his tall frame crowd behind her. She stopped and looked back at him. “I promise, you will love the food.”

  As soon as they walked inside Ty knew
they had found a jewel of a place. Locals sat around talking in small groups and the air was cool from the air conditioning going full blast. Thankfully, there was no smoking allowed in bars anymore and the air was clean which allowed for you to actually see in the dimly lit areas when a young hostess came up to them, asking to seat them. They were quickly seated in a back corner where they could put their backs to the wall and see the room while sipping ice tea and review the menus. Chips were quickly set in front of them with hot sauce on the side. Melissa didn’t even bother to look at her menu. She just laid it down and took a long drink of her iced tea.

  “What, you don’t need to see the menu?” Ty asked, looking at the list of steaks, sides and deserts. His mouth watered as he read each one to himself.

  “Nope, already know what I want, and it will hold me for a bit.” The way she said it made Ty look back up, wondering what she meant.

  “I’ve noticed you don’t eat that much, so should I worry?” he asked, taking a drink of his tea.

  “Eating this late will stay with me for the next twenty four hours so I’ll eat light tomorrow. But I haven’t eaten anything heavy for the last couple of days so it won’t hurt me to eat tonight. That’s why I agreed to come, and the Lone Star used to be one of my favorites.”

  “Used to be?” He watched her, waiting but when she didn’t continue he sighed. “Ah, so you watch what you eat.” The way he said it made Melissa tense up, and Ty instantly added, “No offense meant. Smart thinking, in fact.”

  “Thanks. I think,” she added.

  Melissa felt the tension rise and was glad the waitress chose that moment to show up. When the waitress returned for their order Ty was left speechless at first as Melissa gave her order. He could only watch as the young girl wrote it down quickly as if she was use to the rapid-fire instructions.

  “I want the 8 oz. rib eye, medium rare. Loaded baked potato with no sour cream, side salad with no dressing.” When Melissa looked over at him, Ty was sure his mouth was hanging open. The waitress caught Ty’s attention he had to shake himself.